The present disclosure relates to user interfaces, and more specifically, to configurable user interfaces.
Graphical user interfaces (GUIs) can be created using a variety of different techniques. However, ultimately the goal of the user interface is to define how a user will see data and be able to interact with that data. Although a developer can create source code in a programming language (e.g., Java, C#, etc.) to implement a GUI, toolkits of reusable widgets have been developed that simplify creation of GUIs. For example, a drag-and-drop development environment may be provided that allows a developer to select from a variety of pre-defined widgets and place them onto a pallet so as to create a basic GUI for a particular software application. The developer can then associate various portions of programming code with components of the widgets that will be invoked when a user eventually interacts with the elements of the GUI so as to perform the functionality of the software application.
The availability of widget toolkits and similar GUI design applications allows re-use of common widgets such as, for example, buttons, check boxes, forms, slider controls, drop-down menus, tree views, toolbars, text boxes, table views, query boxes, pop-up help windows, status bars, etc. without a developer recreating each widget from scratch each time it is needed. When the data to be viewed and interacted with is well known and defined, the widget toolkits and drag-and-drop development environments can simplify many aspects of defining a GUI. However, even with a toolkit of available widgets, development of a GUI to potentially handle multiple, disparate types of data, or even data that may not be known at development time, often requires a level of programming proficiency and effort that offsets some of the benefits provided by availability of the toolkits.